The expert dog handlers of the Customs Authorities of Belarus, Germany, Britain, France, Finland, Japan, Turkey, Serbia, Argentina, Australia, China, Angola, Mongolia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Estonia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Kazakhstan and other countries arrived to participate in the event. More than 60 representatives from 28 member- states of the WCO and international organizations attended the Forum.

First Deputy Head of the Federal Customs Service of Russia Mr.Vladimir Malinin opened the Forum. In his speech, he mentioned an important role of dog services in the activities of customs authorities, aiming to suppress the illicit traffic of goods. He also stressed the need to work out perfect training methods and techniques for expert dog handlers and service dogs, as well as to develop canine regional centers.

Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary-General of the World Customs Organization, greeted the participants of the Forum. He made notice of a great importance of the event for the development of the international customs cooperation, as well as for the experience exchange in the domain of prevention by customs authorities of the foreign trade existing risks, i.e. drugs, weapons, medicine and other goods smuggling, where the use of dogs is very efficient. Mr. Mikuriya also expressed his gratitude to the Federal Customs Service of Russia for organization and hosting of the Second World Cynological Forum.

As a part of the first day Forum agenda, the International Conference "The role of cynological services in customs operations" was held. Within the Conference, the presentations of cynological services of the Customs of Russia, Argentina, France, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and other countries took place.

The presentation of WCO Chairman that was devoted to «CENcomm Global cynological Forum» («CENcomm Global K9 Forum») took place.

The problem of the use of sniffer dogs in law enforcement departments of customs authorities was considered in the Forum. The participants discussed special features of the organization and training of service dogs in regional dog training centers of the WCO. The best practices exchange took place in the sphere of canine activities of customs authorities and service dog training in special training centers. The question of creation of electronic working group for the problems of functioning of regional canine training centers in WCO was discussed.

For Information

By the decision of the WCO Law Enforcement Committee, the World Cynological Forum is held every two years. The first Forum took place in January, 2011, in the WCO headquarters in Brussels.

On June 30, 2012, during the 67th Session of the Political Commission of the WTO and the 119/120th Session of the WTO Council in Brussels, the ceremony of conferring the Central Customs (Russian Federal Customs Service Dog Training Center) with the status of a Regional Training Dog Training Center of the World Customs Organization was held.

During the period from 2005 to 2012, one thousand thirty-nine experts and five hundred twenty-three service dogs were trained on the base of the Central Customs (Russian Federal Customs Service Dog Training Center), involving Law Enforcement Institute of the Russian Customs Academy. In the year 2012, 366 cynologists and 103 service dogs were trained in line with the programs of professional retraining and further professional development, including:

on the base of the Central Customs (Russian Federal Customs Service Dog Training Center) - 141 officials of Customs dog training departments and 37 service dogs;

in the WCO Regional Training Center under the Customs Administration of the Czech Republique - 7 officials of Customs dog training departments and 5 service dogs;

In Research and Training Center of the Federal Finance Service of Germany in Neuendettelsau - 3 officials of Customs dog training departments.

In 2012, for the first time in the Central Customs (Russian Federal Customs Service Dog Training Center) there was organized and conducted a further professional development training of 18 representatives of dog training departments of the customs services of CIS member-states.

The Championship of the Russian Federation Customs Authorities among teams of dog experts of the regional customs offices and the customs which report directly to the Russian Federal Customs Service is held annually in order to improve professional skills of canine departments’ officials. The Cup in memory of E.N. Chuharev, Major General of the Customs Service, is presented.

Since 2011, the team of dog experts of Russian FCS with service dogs has been annually participating in international competitions in multidiscipline event for the championship of cynological customs departments of CIS member-states (2011 in Moscow, 2012 in Baku, September 2013 in Bishkek).